SF Giants 2015 regular season

UPDATE: The Giants announced that Lincecum underwent successful arthroscopic surgery on his left hip. “Lincecum is resting comfortably and is expected to begin his rehab in the next few days in preparation for the 2016 season.”

DENVER – Tim Lincecum has thrown his last pitch of the season and the expectation is that he will undergo hip surgery, Giants GM Bobby Evans acknowledged in an interview with KNBR Thursday morning.

Lincecum saw hip specialist Dr. Marc Philippon at the Steadman Clinic in Vail, Colorado, on Wednesday. The Giants medical staff planned to meet with Lincecum and review Phillipon’s recommendations Thursday prior to a series opener against the Colorado Rockies at Coors Field.

But the initial findings, apparently, are in. And they are not surprising, given the setbacks Lincecum has experienced while trying to throw off a mound in recent weeks. Continue Reading →

SAN FRANCISCO – In another life, Bruce Bochy would be a riverboat gambler. The Giants’ manager understands that sometimes you take the biggest risks when you’ve got zippo in your hand.

Bochy took that risk in the fifth inning of Saturday’s 6-0 loss to the St. Louis Cardinals on Saturday. He scanned a lineup that lacked Buster Posey in addition to Brandon Crawford, Hunter Pence and Joe Panik. He reviewed the swings he’d seen off Cardinals right-hander Lance Lynn. He determined that he couldn’t allow a run to score from third base on a ground ball.

“I don’t like doing it a lot,” said Bochy, who brought his infielders onto the grass. “But with Posey out of the lineup and Lynn throwing like he was, I knew it’d be a challenge and I didn’t want to give up a run at that point. It turned out to be a big run, as you saw, since we didn’t score.”

Matt Carpenter’s ground ball was hit too hard for second baseman Kelby Tomlinson to handle, the Giants defense didn’t play tight enough for the second consecutive game and this time they couldn’t outhit their mistakes.Continue Reading →

SAN FRANCISCO — Tim Hudson added to his list of career accomplishments Sunday, even if his outing didn’t inspire confidence about his future.

Hudson grinded through five innings to earn the win as the Giants capped a sweep of the A’s with a 4-3 victory. At age 40, Hudson became the 15th pitcher to own at least one victory against all 30 major league teams.

“I’m not sure if you could say it’s on my bucket list, but it is a pretty cool thing to be able to say you’ve done,” Hudson said. “I’ve been fortunate enough to play for some really good teams and have a chance to beat all of them.”

Hudson’s day ended after 82 pitches, 29 of which came during a laborious fourth inning. The A’s got a pair of two-out run scoring singles before he escaped the inning and he worked around a leadoff single in the fifth inning to become eligible for the win. He allowed seven hits and three runs.

“I thought he was sharp early,” catcher Buster Posey said of Hudson. “He had that one long inning and I thought it wore on him. But he still found a way to get us through five. All in all, I thought it was a step in the right direction.” Continue Reading →

SAN FRANCISCO — Giants outfielder Nori Aoki is traveling back to the club on Sunday with the likelihood that he’ll be activated from the disabled list Monday.

Aoki, out since June 21 with a fracture in his right leg, went 2 for 3 with a walk and a run scored during Triple-A Sacramento’s game in Albuquerque, N.M., on Saturday in what figures to be the last game of his minor league rehabilitation stint.

“We’re going to evaluate him when he gets here,” Bochy said. “If all’s well with him, then he’ll be activated tomorrow.” Continue Reading →

The rookie right-hander who has excelled this year on the home mound had the second-shortest start of his big league career. Heston couldn’t take advantage of four early runs and lasted only 3 2/3 innings in the Giants’ fourth straight defeat.

Heston allowed four runs in the third inning and, after the Giants rallied to tie, was charged for another run in the fourth to lose for the first time in five starts.

“It just looked like he lost his command a little bit,” Giants manager Bruce Bochy said of Heston’s third inning. “That’s an area he’s going to get better at with experience, staying out of the big inning.” Continue Reading →

I’m at the ballpark with some time to spare before the clubhouses open, so figured I’d get this portion of the pregame notes and the lineups up early. I’ll update this later with anything pertinent from the clubhouse or the pregame session with Bruce Bochy.

The second round of National League All-Star voting was released Tuesday and Buster Posey has moved ahead of Yadier Molina in the catcher voting. After trailing Molina by about 100,000 votes last time, he now leads by over 130,000 and is the third-leading vote getter in the N.L., trailing Bryce Harper and Matt Carpenter. Continue Reading →

SAN FRANCISCO – The Giants lost two-fifths of their rotation at the beginning of the season.

The Giants lead the major leagues with seven shutouts.

The Dodgers arrived in San Francisco having been shut out just once this season.

The Dodgers have been shut out in each of the last two games at AT&T Park.

Tim Lincecum is wearing a do-rag under a tilted, flat-brimmed cap.

Tim Lincecum can wear whatever the hell he wants when he holds the Dodgers to three hits in seven shutout innings, and staple-guns runners to third base with no outs.

The Giants beat their archrivals 4-0 Wednesday night and they are undefeated in five home games against them this season. While it’s a bit premature to look at the standings, it’s probably worth noting that the Giants are within 2 ½ games of first place – the closest they’ve been since April 13, when they were smack-dab in the middle of that eight-game losing streak.

SAN FRANCISCO – Tim Lincecum arrived in the major leagues eight years ago with a clean cut, a baby face and a 99 mph heater. The baseball adolescence that followed, like any other, involved going through phases – long hair for awhile, then a wisp of a mustache, now do-rag slim with the tilted brim.

He does not throw hard anymore. It will be harder for Giants fans to forget him.

And on a wet Wednesday night, as fog drifted below the light standards, Lincecum became a phenomenon again. His stuff was low velocity, low visibility and highly crowd pleasing as he held the Dodgers to three hits in seven innings of a 4-0 victory at AT&T Park.

Buster Posey doubled and scored the game’s first run in the sixth inning, then hammered a two-run home run in the eighth. Center fielder Angel Pagan contributed a leaping catch at the wall as the Giants remained undefeated in five home games against their archrivals this year.Continue Reading →

Casey McGehee made an interesting analogy Tuesday afternoon as he sat at his locker inside the Giants clubhouse, his name not in the starting lineup for this first time in eight games.

McGehee said it’s “like falling into a pool. It’s easier to get back to the top when you hit the bottom. (You have) something to push off of.”

McGehee and the Giants are certainly hoping a night off will do him some good, as Matt Duffy gets the start at third base for the Giants in the second game of their series against the San Diego Padres.

After Monday, McGehee was hitless in his last seven at bats and had gone 8 for 55 with just one RBI in his last 17 games. He made an error in the first inning, struck out in his first at-bat, grounded into a double play with the bases loaded in the bottom of the third inning, his ninth this season, and grounded out to lead off the bottom of the sixth inning.

This is Darren Sabedra at AT&T Park tonight, filling in for Baggarly, who is getting a well-earned day off after the week-long trip to Colorado and LA.

Enough about that …

Let’s get to the pregame notes as the Giants open a 10-game homestand tonight against the Angels.

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SAN FRANCISCO — Hunter Pence felt so good Friday that he talked his way into the cage for early batting practice, the first time he has taken live BP since he suffered a fractured forearm the first week of spring training.

Pence hit off a tee, took soft toss pitches and then hit from the normal batting practice distance at AT&T Park.

He will continue the routine through the weekend and be evaluated Monday, manager Bruce Bochy said. Continue Reading →